Turk Hava Yollari (THY) has begun training with a 737-400 full-flight simulator from Thomson Training&Simulation. It is the first commercial flight simulator in Turkey, Thomson said.
Kiwi International Air Lines plans to add two weekday flights between Newark and Atlanta on May 1, and two weekday flights from Newark to Chicago Midway May 15. The additional service will give Kiwi six flights a day on weekdays between Newark and Atlanta and five a day weekdays in the Newark- Chicago market.
The battle to woo Air-India has heated up. As Boeing demonstrated its new 777 to Air-India officials this week in Bombay, Airbus Industrie issued a two-page news release to the local media disputing the U.S. manufacturer's claims. Countering Boeing's claim that it had cornered up to 70% of orders for the 300- to 350-seat market, Airbus said the actual figure for Boeing is 25%, while the A330/A340 has 45% and the MD-11 30%.
Continental yesterday sold its System One computer reservations system to the European CRS company Amadeus Global Travel Distribution for cash and a 12.4% stake in Amadeus (DAILY, April 27). Continental, which will get at least one seat on the Amadeus board, declined to reveal how much money it will receive or the value of the System One liabilities Amadeus will absorb. In the complex, four-way transaction, finalized yesterday, Amadeus will acquire System One's CRS software and other assets and liabilities, and Continental will get the Amadeus stake.
Northwest Airlines and Piedmont Aviation Services have formed a joint venture marketing agreement for third party auxiliary power unit overhaul and repair. The venture will focus on domestic and international carriers and cover a broad range of APU services, the companies said. The work will be done at Northwest's Minneapolis maintenance facility and at Piedmont's Winston-Salem, N.C., overhaul facility. Northwest offers capability for GTCP-331, 660 and 700 APU models, while Piedmont specializes in 85 and 36 series units.
Norway, Sweden and Denmark initialed open skies agreements with the U.S. late Wednesday, ending the first phase of the U.S. nine-country initiative. Official signings are scheduled next month, said Paul Gretch, director of DOT's Office of International Aviation. Earlier, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Iceland and Switzerland initialed agreements with the U.S.
America West's board of directors has approved the tentative five-year new contract with its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, and the pilots have ratified the agreement. Carrier Chairman and Chief Executive William Franke said the accord provides long-term stability and "the most flexible union-company work rules in the industry." The contract guarantees pay increases averaging 6.9% per year, and offers a single pay scale for all aircraft types.
BWIA International Airways and American have formed a strategic alliance in which they will code share on each other's flights and American parent AMR Corp. will provide BWIA with products and services. American wants to publish its AA designator code on BWIA nonstop flights between Antigua and both Miami and New York Kennedy, where BWIA recently moved into the American terminal, and on intra-Caribbean flights between Barbados and Antigua, St. Lucia, Port of Spain and St. Maarten, and between Port of Spain and both Grenada and Georgetown.
FAA and Loral Corp. have reached agreement on contract modifications by which Loral will provide new air traffic controller workstations instead of the Initial Sector Suite System (ISSS), which had troubled the agency's relations with the former IBM Federal Systems Co. before Loral took it over. Announcing the agreement yesterday, FAA Deputy Administrator Linda Daschle put an $898 million value on the new fixed-price-incentive contract for the workstations, now called the Display Replacement System (DRS).
Domestic regional airlines boarded 57 million passengers during 1994, an 8% increase over the previous year, according to annual statistics issued this week by the Regional Airline Association and AvStat Associates of Washington, D.C. The industry's average load factor was a healthy 51%. Traffic, in revenue passenger miles, was up 13.3% to 12.02 billion, outpacing capacity, which increased 9.6% to 23.73 billion available seat miles.
AlliedSignal Aerospace said SAS has selected its anti-icing system for 69 MD-80 aircraft. AlliedSignal said its Electro-Thermal Ice Protection System is designed to eliminate the formation of clear ice on the upper surface of the wing. Ice shedding from the wing surface during takeoff presents a potential hazard to rear-mounted engines, such as those on the MD-80, the company said.
Canadian Regional Airlines will phase out eight of 15 ATR 42s in favor of eight used de Havilland Dash 8-100s in its Ontario fleet by April 1996 in what the carrier describes as fleet standardization. Any speculation that the decision resulted from the ATR grounding last winter is "not true," said Business Planning Manager Ted Sheldon. The carrier will continue to operate ATR 42s in Quebec. By next April, the carrier systemwide will operate seven ATR 42s, 12 Dash 8-100s, 13 Dash 8-300s, 13 Fokker F28s and two Shorts 360s, for a total of 47 aircraft.
Paraguayan carrier LAPSA has joined the LatinPass frequent flyer program, which now comprises 18 Latin and Caribbean carriers and USAir.LatinPass officials say their goal is for all major Latin carriers to join, and then to grow the venture into a global program.
Continental Express has reached an agreement with its pilots to fly the company's new fleet of 19-passenger Beech 1900s but...the pilots' union wants the agreement included in an overall new contract - still in negotiations - before they will fly the planes, while the company would like 1900 operations to begin under a side letter.
DOT has established a fund to help the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, DOT Secretary Federico Pena said yesterday at a memorial service in Washington. "The last eight days have been very painful," he said, "but the last thing we should do is allow [the perpetrators] to intimidate us."
United Parcel Service supported a filing by the U.S. government of the first formal dispute resolution measure with Mexico under Chapter 20 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. UPS said the filing was in response to the Mexican government's failure to meet its NAFTA obligation to grant U.S. express delivery companies the right to operate the same size vehicles as Mexican competitors. The dispute procedures, initiated by U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, are intended to provide a non-confrontational process to resolve differences.
Delta yesterday reported substantially improved March quarter financial results that put it solidly on track for a profit in the fiscal year ending June 30. For the March quarter, Delta had a net loss of $11 million before stock dividends and an operating profit of $40 million. In the same 1994 quarter, it had a net loss of $78 million and an operating loss of $67 million. Through the first three quarters of Delta's fiscal 1995, the airline had an operating profit of $212 million and a net profit of $157 million before dividends.
AMR Eagle pilots will be barred from flying both the 70-passenger Avro RJ70 and the Fokker F70 under a revised scope clause agreed to by American and its pilots. The new clause does not change the 70-passenger cap (maximum fleet average is 50 seats) on aircraft flown by the Eagle subsidiaries, but it does impose a limitation of 75,000 pounds maximum gross takeoff weight - both the RJ70 and the F70 check in at 84,000 pounds. It would not prohibit operation of the 50-passenger Canadair Regional Jet (51,000 pounds) or the 70-passenger Dash 8-400 at 57,000 pounds.
Top Regional Aircraft 1994 (By Total Seats) Percentage Total of Total Aircraft Fleet 1994 in Airline Total Seating Fleet Rank Manufacturer Model Service* Seats Capacity Block Hours
FAA has issued a broad agency announcement (TCBAA-95-0001) soliciting proposals for research and development into technologies for detecting bulk, compound-specific explosives. The agency said there are known technologies, including electromagnetic resonance and crystal identification, that yield a signature of specific explosive compounds in bulk explosives.
Officials of Controllers United, which represents many former members of the Pro- fessional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, are scheduled to meet Tuesday with White House staff members to argue their case that FAA does not have enough air traffic controllers and is not hiring PATCO members fast enough. The AFL-CIO and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association also maintain that there are not enough air traffic controllers. An AFL-CIO official recently questioned FAA data indicating that the number of controllers is adequate.
DOT General Counsel Stephen Kaplan will leave his position during June or July. He will return to Denver to devote more time to his family, said a government official. Kaplan played a key role in breaking the stalemate in U.S.-Canada aviation relations. Beginning in October 1994, Kaplan and Geoffrey Elliot, former chief negotiator of bilateral air agreements for Canada, held a series of private meetings, which led to a framework agreement that served as the basis of the new bilateral (DAILY, Dec. 23, 1994).
Lufthansa Technik has signed a contract with Austrian Airlines for the maintenance and overhaul of two Airbus A340s. Austrian selected Lufthansa Technik's Total Technical Support (TTS) program, which means the aircraft will be integrated completely in Lufthansa Technik's maintenance and overhaul system. Lufthansa Technik sister company Lufthansa German Airlines was a launch customer for the A340 and has been flying the four- engine aircraft since March 1993. Lufthansa Technik has long-term TTS contracts with four other airlines covering a total of five A340s.
Canadian Airlines International and Lufthansa are expanding their joint venture/code-sharing alliance and plan to add 30% more capacity per week to and from Germany by summer 1996. Under the broadened pact, the partners will share codes on all Canada-Germany services, beginning Dec. 22. Next winter, they will jointly offer daily nonstop flights to Frankfurt from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal Mirabel. At least six weekly flights will be available from Calgary.
